Mark is a fast paced, action packed gospel. It’s the shortest of the four gospels, and a sense of urgency is palpable from beginning to end. There’s no lengthy prologue at the beginning, no chance to settle in and get comfortable. Instead, there are a few short verses from Isaiah that introduce us to the fiery preacher, John the Baptist. And within the first twelve verses Jesus is baptized and immediately driven into the wilderness by the Spirit and tempted by Satan.
After Jesus’ temptation, a chain of fast moving events unfold before our eyes. You won’t find long teachings in Mark, no big paragraphs in red letters. There’s no leisurely musings about lilies in the field. There’s no time for it. Jesus is waist deep in a demon soaked world, working to conquer satanic forces in a highly charged apocalyptic atmosphere. God was primed to radically step onto the world stage and topple everything. Maybe this is why in Mark we see Jesus occasionally behaving like a shrill, evangelical street preacher. But in a world so full of suffering and evil, who can blame him? Jesus wasn’t deceived. He saw with eyes wide open. Evil was present in the world- real, stark, and unambiguous.
And it had to be conquered. Jesus knew that God’s kingdom was at hand. He saw that nothing could stop God’s reign from being realized on earth, and he had the faith to see it through. He wouldn’t compromise with the powers that be, and gave his life for the realization of this kingdom. Mark ends as an open-ended story with a young man relaying a message to the shocked women at the tomb: Jesus has been raised from the dead- Tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee!
It’s difficult in modern times, with its tepid sensibilities and prudence, to comprehend the radical world that Mark describes. Nevertheless, even in our times we know the reality of suffering, and the struggle against evil. We know what it feels like when suffering pulls us inward, away from God and neighbor, and into darkness. Yet, our faith is a witness to a God who doesn’t leave us to battle suffering and evil alone. There’s no benign God that hovers pristinely above the earth. Rather, in Jesus God himself chooses to take the hard path of suffering, feeling our aches and pains, feeling the daily trials and headaches and banalities that we face. We have a Savior who wades waist deep in the thick of our suffering, crying out on our behalf- a Savior who strikes at the storm clouds of our hearts, opens us to glimpses of his kingdom, and pulls us along.
